Porto Venere Delivers Super Tight Melges 32 Racing on Day One

Porto Venere, Italy - Three races were conducted on opening day of the 2016 Melges 32 European Sailing Series with Russia’s Pavel Kuznetsov aboard Tavatuy winning the daily tiebreaker with International Melges 32 Class President Giangiacomo Serena di Lapigio on G-SPOT assuming the overall lead. Both sit first and second respectively with eleven points each. Turkey’s Ahmet Eker’s Eker had a spectacular day to round out the podium positions only two points back.

After a brief onshore postponement, teams went racing with Kuznetsov taking the win wire-to-wire in Race One. From the start, Kuznetsov lead the fleet around the track with Matteo Balestrero aboard La Spezia Sailing Team/Giogi and Serena di Lapigio chasing for second position. Serena di Lapigio settled the fight finishing second. Balestrero earned a well-deserved third.

In Race Two, Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino made a huge comeback after an OCS at the start of Race One, that gave way to an initial, unsatisfactory result. With daily race winner Kuznetsov chewing at his heels, Onorato rounded the top mark in first and held the lead to take the win. Kuznetsov was second followed by Eker in third.

Despite an early advance by Valentin Zavadnikov on Synergy, the final race gave way to another new daily winner — Germany’s Fritz Homann on Wilma. Homann hammered a big win making it his best performance in the fleet to date. He has been racing in the fleet for a little more than a year and today, his hard work and passion paid off huge with victory at the finish line. Balestrero had another great result to finish second. Fleet newcomer Lasse Petterson aboard the brand new Norwegian entry Pippa ended the race on a banner note in third. His daily highlight was rounding the final weather mark in first!

Racing continues on Saturday with more intense Melges 32 racing!

MEDIA AND RACING COVERAGE As with all other Melges 32 events around the world, racing updates will be posted online at the Official Melges 32 Facebook Page. Tune in for the latest racing information, results, video interviews, and photos. Race reports, press releases and photos will be available online each day post racing at melges32.com.